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A revisionist history of microscopical sciences
Author(s) -
Phinney Harry K.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.1990.tb04770.x
Subject(s) - productivity , microscope , period (music) , history , epistemology , philosophy , optics , aesthetics , physics , economics , economic growth
SUMMARY Indices of productivity have been constructed using the scientific literature of the seventeenth through mid‐nineteenth century for use in judging the accuracy of generalized statements citing low or no productivity in microscopical science during this time. The evidence produced refutes the expressed opinions that: (1) microscopes of that period were considered useless for scientific studies; (2) microscope images were considered unreliable by the scientific community; (3) the trivial activities of ‘amateurs’ precluded serious studies by ‘professionals’; (4) the microscope was simply unappreciated as a research tool until the middle of the nineteenth century.